billion, but, of course, we re willing to compromise. of course we re willing to put more money into border security. i ll be interested to see what the compromise looks like before i commit to voting forever it or against it. the real tragedy is she should be we should be able to do a bigger comprehensive policy. i hope we can have a bigger conversation some time soon. i think he would argue it was authorized but not appropriated but i don t want to get into the weeds of all of that. back in october, you and the senate relations committee invoked a law that requires president trump to determine whether or not the saudi crown prince, mbs, was responsible, directly or indirectly for the death of journalist jamal khashoggi. that deadline came and went on friday with no response from the white house. the president maintains his discretion to decline to act on congressional committee s request when appropriate.
allegation of rape. that s a crime that you can go to jail for, for a very long time. and so i think you have to look at the circumstances of every case. these are serious. the government is just five days away from another potential government shutdown. democrats have previously vowed not to give the president any money for any wall. but there s this group of bipartisan lawmakers working on a compromise that, according to sources, could include up to $2 billion if not more, for border barriers. whatever you want to call them. a wall, border barriers. is it fair to assume democrats will support funding for some sort of barrier at the border at the end of the day? the budget bill that we passed in the senate through committee last year provided for $1.6 billion in new border security money and, of course, members of the senate have voted in the past for border security money, including barrier funding. i think the problem now is we ve only got about seven months left on the fiscal y
absolutely have to secure the border. i thought it was interesting when you watched the negotiations that have been going on between the bipartisan and bicameral committee. when the committee members had a chance to go visit the border, when the committee members had a chance to hear from border patrol agents themselves and testimony, it made a difference, i think. and i think that there s bipartisan agreement. we have to secure the border. there s some members of leadership on the democratic side, in particular, speaker pelosi, who is really out there on her own saying things like walls are immoral and she ll only allow $1 for a wall. the american people want the border secure. i m hopeful that this committee will be able to come up with a proposal that we can all support, that the president can sign. but it s going to have to include funding that will allow us to secure the border and it will have to include funding for some sort of a barrier. but $2 billion theoretically, they re
this isn t an informal committee request. the law requires that when the chairman and the rankin member of the foreign relations committee ask the president to make a finding as to a human rights violation overseas, he has to respond. he has to respond. that s what the law says. he doesn t have an option here. i understand why he doesn t want to make this determination. his intelligence services are telling him that mohammad bin salman was responsible and because either of a personal relationship he has or a business relationship he has with saudi arabia, he is declining to make that finding to congress. but this isn t his general executive discretion. he has to, under the law. he didn t. and he didn t. so what now? listen, i assume we can go to court to try to make the president comply with this law. we can raise political pressure as we will this year. or we can move forward with sanctions. and i think that s probably the most appropriate step. congress doesn t have to wait